It’s not just a supermarket, it’s a job market.
The upstate grocery-store chain Wegmans announced Wednesday that it’s coming to Brooklyn and bringing much-needed jobs, fresh produce and low prices with it.
The Rochester-based company with a fierce cult following will open a 74,000-square-foot store on Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“It’s a thrill to bring Wegmans to Brooklyn, along with hundreds of new jobs,” said Danny Wegman, the family-owned supermarket chain’s CEO.
“Our employees are part of our family, and they are the reason for our success,” Wegman added.
Wegmans will initially hire 450 people, including 150 full-time employees, the company said. It plans to eventually employ 600 people.
While company spokeswoman Jo Natale declined to reveal what the jobs will pay, she told the Daily News, “Our rates are equal to or better than rates paid by other retailers.”
Similar supermarket chains like Whole Foods pay employees, on average, $16 to $17 an hour.
The company is committed to recruiting employees from the nearby Farragut, Whitman and Ingersoll housing projects, said Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
“This new development will generate much needed jobs for residents in the area …,” Scissura said.
For 18 consecutive years, Wegmans has been ranked by Fortune magazine among the “100 Best Companies to Work For” — coming in 7th in the most recent survey.
In addition to providing good health-care benefits, the company offers paid vacation for full-time and part-time employees and a matching 401-K plan.
Since 1984, the company has spent $100 million on an employee scholarship program, paying the college tuition of 32,000 employees, Natale noted.
Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen welcomed Wegmans as dovetailing with City Hall’s priority for “maximizing good jobs and opening up career paths for New Yorkers.”
Natale said the company, which has inspired everything from fan websites to a high school musical in Massachusetts, has not yet set a timeline on when the Brooklyn store will open, but the New York Times reported Wednesday the store is set to be in business by 2017.
Wegmans, founded in 1916, has 85 stores throughout New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland.
Local residents like Kathy Newsome of the Farragut Houses were ecstatic about the prospect of the supermarket and its jobs coming to neighborhood.
“We need jobs,” Newsome said. “If the food is fresh and at a discount, I’m all fort it.”
Stephanie Fitzhugh, 61, also of the Farragut Houses, said life has been hard since she recently lost her job at a day-care center. She said she plans to apply for work at Wegmans. “I want me a job,” Fitzhugh said.
But Fitzhugh should brace for competition. When Wegmans opened a store in Montgomeryville, Penn., in 2013, 10,000 people applied for 500 jobs.
